Father Claims 10-Year-Old Daughter Experienced “Uncomfortable” Two-Minute TSA Pat-Down

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While it’s normal for travelers to undergo additional screening procedures from the Transportation Security Administration when there could be something amiss, the father of a 10-year-old girl says she was made uncomfortable by a two-minute pat-down after she left a juice pouch in her carry-on.

The San Diego man says his daughter was thoroughly patted down by a female TSA agent for almost two minutes at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, an experience he said clearly made her feel uncomfortable.

“She just had a completely blank stare on her face,” he told the Today show. “I could tell it was very uncomfortable for her.”

Agents swabbed her bag after discovering the juice — which exceeds TSA limits for how much liquid can be brough on a plane — and got a false-positive reading for explosives on the bag. The pat-down followed.

“What was going through my mind is, ‘This is annoying, I don’t like this, I want to run out of the door,'” the daughter told the show.

According to TSA protocol, “Modified screening procedures are in place to reduce the likelihood of a pat-down.”

“TSA screening procedures allow for the pat-down of a child under certain circumstances,” the agency said in a statement. “The process by which the child was patted down followed approved procedures.”

In this particular situation, TSA said the process was observed by her parent, and that a cell phone alarm sounding in her bag required additional checks.

But her dad says the rules should be changed when it comes to young children. He’s contacted his congressman and will file a formal complaint against the agency, he says.

“Maybe they need retraining. Maybe they did everything by the book. I don’t really know, but it was an uncomfortable situation,” he said.

Father Outraged By ‘Uncomfortable’ TSA Pat-Down on 10-Year-Old Daughter [Today]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist